Landfill

1. Gulls Mirror Our Modern World and Its Waste

Nowadays gulls are trash birds, the subnatural inhabitants of drosscapes.

Gulls as contemporaries. Gulls, unlike many other birds, have adapted to and thrived in the modern, man-made world, following trawlers, ploughs, and dust-carts, making them more our contemporaries than most other wildlife. They walk the built-up world and grab a bite where they can.

Gulls' shift in status. This adaptation has lowered their status from seabirds to "trash birds," seen as déclassé and mongrelizing in their habits. They are now often viewed negatively, as scavengers rather than entrepreneurs, aliens rather than refugees.

Gulls as mirrors. Despite the negative perception, gulls keep us company and reflect our own waste-making habits. They are a reminder of the interconnectedness of our lives and the environment, even in the midst of our discards.

2. Taxonomy Shapes Our Perception of Gulls

Studying both organising (which could include bird systematics and the recycling of rubbish) and disorganising (anarchic bird lists and chaotic dumps), and then the organisation of the disorganised (revisions to avian taxonomies and to the categories of rubbish), took me to thoughts that weren’t about gulls, or even birds, and there are pages here that have nothing flying through them.

Splitting and lumping. The classification of gulls has been complex and contentious, with species being both "lumped" together and "split" apart as our understanding evolves. This taxonomic flux has influenced how birdwatchers perceive and value different gull species.

The rise of the "guller." The splitting of the herring gull complex into multiple species has led to the emergence of a new subgroup of birdwatchers, the "gullers" or "larophiles," who are dedicated to identifying and studying these often difficult-to-distinguish birds. They are dump devotees, sifter of species in the dinge of waste places, scrutineer of remiges and rectrices, patient teller of moons and spoons, windows and pearls.

Beyond the names. The act of naming and classifying nature is a human construct that brings wildlife closer to us, but it also reminds us that these creatures exist independently of our taxonomical attentions. The gulls live who they are, and we are right to tell the difference because the difference tells.

3. Urban Gulls: Opportunists in a Man-Made World

By moving onto the rooftops of our buildings and sourcing our edible refuse at rubbish dumps, gulls – herring gulls more than any – have come closest of all birds to our present lives, and have gained unique admission into our places.

Adapting to urban environments. Gulls have successfully colonized urban environments, nesting on rooftops and foraging in landfills, demonstrating their adaptability and opportunistic nature. This has led to a significant increase in urban gull populations.

Exploiting human resources. Urban gulls have learned to exploit human food waste, making a "nutrient-rich sea" out of our refuse and a "marine archipelago" out of our rooftops. They have become canny opportunists, embodying the spirit of the modern city.

The urban-rural divide. Studies suggest the development of two mostly separate populations of large gulls in Britain: the rural and the urban. Birds hatched in the city breed in the city, while rural birds stay rural, with just slightly more coming to town than the other way around.

4. Landfills: Lively Ecosystems Amidst Decay

In history, as in nature, decay is the laboratory of life.

Waste as a resource. Landfills, often seen as desolate and toxic places, are actually lively ecosystems that provide sustenance for gulls and other wildlife. They are places where waste is processed, sorted, and sometimes repurposed.

The end of an era. The era of the open landfill is coming to an end as we move towards more sustainable waste management practices like recycling and incineration. This shift is impacting gull populations, as their primary food source diminishes.

Gulls as recyclers. Gulls, like ragpickers and archivists, are workers of waste, finding value in creatures otherwise labeled shoddy or dreck. They fertilize the ground: they defecate, they regurgitate, and they drop food remains that they have found elsewhere, and their empty nests compost back into the deepening soil.

5. Gulls as Bio-Indicators of Environmental Calamities

Not everything a gull takes from a tip is good for it.

Gulls as sentinels. Gulls, due to their feeding habits, serve as bio-indicators of environmental pollution, accumulating toxins like flame-retardants and plastics in their bodies. Their health can reflect the health of the wider ecosystem.

Plastic crisis. Gulls' consumption of plastic nurdles and other petro-morsels signals a global plastic crisis. These plastics, mistaken for food, accumulate in their digestive systems and can have harmful effects.

Chemical exposure. Decades of working through our rubbish have made them cruelly useful bio-indicators of various environmental calamities. The feminisation of embryos as a result of DDT exposure was first noted in gulls in the 1980s.

6. The Duality of Gulls: Scavengers and Survivors

At first, I thought writing about this might describe an impoverished experience: birders turning to gulls because they are the only birds around.

Scavengers or entrepreneurs? Gulls are often seen as scavengers, but they are also entrepreneurs, adapting to new food sources and environments. They are survivors, thriving in the face of human-induced changes to the landscape.

Love and hate. The meeting of gulls and people is exuberant. It has an excess that could be called joyous. Yet, even besmirched like this, the gulls keep us company. And they’ll be with us for the duration of this, our late hour.

The dark side. Some of this hatred is particular to the times, and some is a resurgent rivalrous antagonism that almost any other creature on Earth can trigger in our species – that dark loathing we can find in ourselves for any living life.

7. Gulls in Literature: Symbols of Duality and Disquiet

Studying both organising (which could include bird systematics and the recycling of rubbish) and disorganising (anarchic bird lists and chaotic dumps), and then the organisation of the disorganised (revisions to avian taxonomies and to the categories of rubbish), took me to thoughts that weren’t about gulls, or even birds, and there are pages here that have nothing flying through them.

Gulls as symbols. Gulls have been used in literature to symbolize a range of themes, from freedom and adaptability to greed and aggression. Their presence often reflects the anxieties and contradictions of the human condition.

Du Maurier's "The Birds." Daphne du Maurier's short story "The Birds" portrays gulls as part of a larger avian force driven to attack humans, reflecting Cold War anxieties and fears of the unknown. The gulls are keener listeners and mind-readers; overhead, now, they ‘waited upon some signal’.

Chekhov's "The Seagull." Chekhov's play "The Seagull" uses the bird as a symbol of drifting and unsettled souls, reflecting the characters' emotional turmoil and the destructive nature of human relationships. Nina, the would-be actress and lover of the would-be playwright Konstantin, declares herself a seagull drawn to him and his home, as the bird is to a lake.

8. The Gullers: Finding Value in the Disregarded

As the birds worked our utility places and our waste, I saw that birders were processing the gulls, picking through them, finding new things to know and to understand, finding value in creatures otherwise labelled shoddy or dreck.

The rise of the larophiles. The emergence of "gullers" or "larophiles" reflects a growing interest in finding beauty and value in the overlooked and often derided aspects of the natural world. They are dump devotees, sifter of species in the dinge of waste places, scrutineer of remiges and rectrices, patient teller of moons and spoons, windows and pearls.

Beyond aesthetics. For gullers, the appeal of gulls is not primarily aesthetic but intellectual, driven by the challenge of identification and the opportunity to learn about the birds' behavior, ecology, and evolution. They are processing the gulls, picking through them, finding new things to know and to understand, finding value in creatures otherwise labelled shoddy or dreck.

A new way of seeing. This enthusiastic organising of life (an action potentially lovable itself) in the midst of the organising of what we could call death (the sorting and rendering of our waste) is gripping. Landfill means more than just a tip for the end of things.

9. Gulls and Humans: An Entangled Evolution

In my lifetime gulls have come towards us.

Co-evolution. Gulls and humans have co-evolved, with gulls adapting to human-modified environments and humans developing complex relationships with these birds, ranging from admiration to animosity. They have lived in our slipstream, following trawlers, ploughs, dust-carts.

A shared history. By moving towards us, they’ve risked becoming like us. Bin chickens, some call them. They live as we do, walking the built-up world and grabbing a bite where they can.

The future of the relationship. The future of gulls and humans is uncertain, but it will likely depend on how we manage our waste, protect our ecosystems, and address the challenges of climate change.

10. The Enduring Fascination with Gulls

All this that follows then, is to try to discover what I think of these birds, and how all of our thinking has shaped the way we know them; all this, to ask how changing the way we consider an animal might alter its meaning.

Beyond the surface. Gulls, often dismissed as common and unremarkable, offer a rich and complex subject for study, revealing insights into evolution, ecology, human behavior, and the nature of knowledge itself.

Changing perspectives. By changing the way we consider an animal, we might alter its meaning. This book is to try to discover what I think of these birds, and how all of our thinking has shaped the way we know them.

A call for attention. Familiarity need not breed contempt. As Dee shows, it can breed fascination. The gulls keep us company. And they’ll be with us for the duration of this, our late hour.

Last updated: April 15, 2025